


sippin' on straight chlorine

by whotfispeach



Category: Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Swimming, always a mermaid!awsten, awsten is paranoid but for good reason this time, the tail gets a fucking break in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 06:18:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16258412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whotfispeach/pseuds/whotfispeach
Summary: he and the boys had barely figured out how the fuck a mermaid was supposed to shower on warped tour- it involved human barricades, towels as curtains, and a lot of laying down and hoping to dry off inhumanly fast- but the anxiety of anyone else finding out his weird secret remained at near full capacity. he'd known jawn for a million years, and didn't really think he'd freak out too badly... but what if he did?





	sippin' on straight chlorine

of all of his friends, travis probably reacted the best upon learning that his friend had secretly been a mermaid the whole time. 

"that's cool," he responded evenly. "why didn't you tell me before?"

awsten gawked at him. "because, it's fucking weird, most people aren't mer-... it's cool?"

"yeah," travis repeated, eyebrows lifting, as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe. "i mean, is there anything else you've been hiding the whole time?"

"... besides... under... your porch?" travis rolled his eyes. awsten agreed. "i tried to make it work. whatever. but no, i think that's the only, like, world shattering revelation i have for you." 

travis shrugged. "alright." and that was that. 

now jawn was crashing at his brand new- _brand_ _new_! _his_!- apartment for the weekend, and awsten was... panicking. go figure. 

he and the boys had barely figured out how the fuck a mermaid was supposed to shower on warped tour- it involved human barricades, towels as curtains, and a lot of laying down and hoping to dry off inhumanly fast- but the anxiety of anyone else finding out his weird secret remained at near full capacity. he'd known jawn for a million years, and didn't really think he'd freak out too badly... but what if he  _ did _ ?

"awsten?" he jumped a little, snapping out of his terrified haze to meet jawn's eyes across from him. he was sitting- well, on the floor, but there would be a couch there eventually. there were still boxes of shit in almost every corner of the room, and little to no furniture, barely a bed, but it felt more like home than LA had ever felt before. "you alright?"

" _ totally _ ," he lied unconvincingly. jawn gave him a look. "just... stressed. moving is stressful. i don't know."

"right," jawn drawled, clearly skeptical. 

a pause. awsten inhaled sharply. "i have something to tell you."

"okay?"

"it's weird."

"you're already weird."

awsten made a distressed face. "i'm serious," he insisted. "it's... i mean, travis didn't freak out, but he's fucking weirder than i am- but it's  _ weird _ , and it freaked  _ me _ out, and i wouldn't blame you for being freaked out, but like- it's gonna come up over the weekend probably, and i just wanted to warn you in case you see it, and i'm actually kind of surprised you never saw it at warped, cause that shit was fucking  _ insane- _ "

"awsten," jawn interrupted, laughing. awsten made another frustrated face. "listen, whatever it is, you're not gonna freak me out, okay? there's no reason to be scared of me."

"i'm not scared of you."

"uh huh."

"it's just..." awsten trailed off, eyes flickering around the room, clearly paranoid. "uh. so... basically. i... okay. i'm just gonna..."

" _ awsten _ ."

"i grow a mermaid tail when i get wet," he blurted out. immediately he froze, staring at the wall very intently, as if he were memorizing the texture. it was boring and white, and he wanted to paint them all something bright and obnoxious, but he wasn't sure what yet-

"prove it."

awsten's gaze snapped back over to jawn's. there was a little smirk on his face, and his chest clenched. he didn't buy it.  _ go figure _ . "i... okay. okay. that's fair."

jawn made a little go-on gesture, eyebrows lifting curiously. awsten totally wasn't shaking. "okay. so, scales. i'll get... water. yeah." he scrambled to his feet, shuffling into the kitchen and bracing himself at the sink. 

"doesn't this place have a pool?"

oh no. oh,  _ no _ . "dude, it's october. and it's night. and it'd be  _ freezing _ ."

he turned his head to look at jawn and saw him grinning, as if he'd caught awsten mid-bullshit. "if you say so."

awsten set his jaw firmly. "you know what? yeah. let's go." clearly jawn wasn't expecting that, because his eyes instantly bugged out at him as he crossed the apartment to root through a bathroom cabinet. his heartbeat was thudding in his ears now, adrenaline powering him through what was possibly the most stupidly impulsive thing he’d ever done. "towels? i have towels. i don't even know if the pool has security cameras. fuck. it's fine."

"awsten?" 

he gave jawn a serious look as he came back into the room with an armful of towels. "can you get my key?"

"yeah..."

awsten nodded. his heart was beating a thousand miles too fast, but it was fine. this is fine. "alright. let's go."

~

awsten, as a matter of fact, had absolutely no fucking idea what the hell he was doing.

they were standing at the edge of the pool, staring into the water tinted a greenish-blue by the tiles at the bottom that reflected off the dim pool lights. there was no one out there with them- of course, because it was october and night and freezing. awsten couldn't  _ see _ any security cameras, but the idea alone made him nervous enough to want to back out. jawn was watching him, though, steady. curious. 

"i don't know what the fuck i'd do if anyone else saw me," awsten whispered.

jawn shrugged. "we'll come up with something."

awsten took a deep breath. "alright." he shrugged off his sweater and handed it to jawn, watching jawn's amused expression turn to confusion. "never actually swam with this thing before," he admitted, turning his gaze to the still water as he peeled off his pants and kicked off his shoes. "this'll be weird."

"awsten?"

"what, you thought i was lying?" he gave jawn a lopsided smile, but it faded with nerves almost instantly. "i know i'm an amazing actor, but that good? no way."

and awsten jumped into the pool.

as soon as he made contact with the water he felt it. the rush over his skin, the freezing cold water that clashed with the heat simmering beneath the surface. he struggled to tear off his briefs before they got torn up- not that they weren't old and now ruined with chlorine anyway- and resurfaced a moment later, breathing heavily.

with the addition, of course, of a tail. 

the tail hovered behind him, ends flicking out of the water hesitantly, as awsten found jawn staring wide eyed. he looked a bit like otto had, caught between curiosity and horror. awsten couldn't help but agree. "what..."

"i know."

"what the  _ fuck _ ?"

"i know."

"you're a fucking- you have a-  _ what the fuck _ , awsten?"

"i don't know!" he swam over to the edge of the pool, resting his arms on the pavement as jawn crouched down to sit cross-legged and watch him. the fear had mostly passed, now replaced with fascination. awsten also agreed. "i've always had weird scales when i got wet, so, there's that. but the tail is new."

"how new?"

"like... entertainment new." 

jawn's jaw dropped. "you... have been a secret mermaid. the whole fucking time."

"... yeah, pretty much."

"that's..." jawn just stared, shaking his head a little. his eyes were wide and his hands were gripping awsten's sweater a bit too tightly. "fucking  _ awesome _ ."

awsten rolled his eyes. "it's fucking inconvenient," he mumbled. 

"so wait, you said you'd never swam with it before," jawn backtracked. "why?"

"i mean, aside from the obvious?"

"yeah."

awsten laughed. his tail started to sway beneath him, allowing him to hover in the water, rather than lean up against the side. nice, he thought. "i've spent a lot more time trying to hide it than trying to, like, see what it can do or whatever."

"maybe you should swim more," jawn suggested.

"right, because that totally wouldn't cause some kind of fucking... mass hysteria if the paparazzi got pictures of the dude from waterparks who has a fucking mermaid tail." 

jawn just shrugged. "night swimming seems to work okay," he countered.

"that's... fair."

his tail seemed to love the water, surprise of surprises. he'd never been able to stretch it to its full length, but in the pool it had plenty of space to move, to swim, to splash water at jawn and watch him duck for cover, laughing his ass off. maybe he should go swimming more.

maybe having a mermaid tail  _ was _ kind of fucking awesome.


End file.
